


You'll Make This One Work

by gingerbread man (xphantomhive)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, I must be sick, Implied Red GamTav, M/M, Nepeta has an OTP, Nepeta's OTP is my OTP, Pale/Red SolKat, Pale/Red/Black KarTez, Red KatNep, Shipping Wall, Shocking I know, Wow I wrote something that ISN'T JohnDave, pale gamkar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 11:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4262505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xphantomhive/pseuds/gingerbread%20man
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat reflects his relationships.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'll Make This One Work

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I've ever written that isn't JohnDave.

You had wanted Terezi in every quadrant like a lovesick fool.

The two of you started pale -- best buds, she had always said. Then your back and forth banter treaded into black territory, and you’d known before it happened that you were about to vacillate quadrants. You didn’t think she had noticed, until one day she messaged you (H3Y K4RKL3S, 4R3 W3 V4C1LL4T1NG QU4DR4NTS?) and you were a bit dumbstruck. It wasn’t that Terezi wasn’t smart, and that she wouldn’t notice something like that, but you suppose you were just kind of shocked.

When you’d told her yes, you were, she laughed it off. For a long stretch of time, the two of you stuck to blackrom, but somewhere in the middle it changed to red. It didn’t take long for her to notice that, either (1 TH1NK W3 JUST V4C1LL1T4T3D QU4DR4NTS 4G41N) and then the two of you carried a flushed relationship (until she met Dave).

Whatever quadrant you had been in eventually dwindled until it was nothing; the two of you weren’t black or pale or red, you were nothing more than friends. Terezi never even called you two “best buds” anymore -- always, you were just her loud-mouthed shouty friend, Karkat Vantas. You aren’t sure when, but there was some point when the unrequited feelings you had for her disappeared.

 

* * *

 

Sollux and you fluctuated between quadrants.

Only two of them, though. With Terezi, you’d jumped between three. With Sollux, you balanced two. It had started out as pale, just as it had with Terezi. But instead of the friendly banter you passed back and forth becoming something black, it somehow manifested from friendly banter to petnames and flirting. You were the first one to figure out the relationship had steadily turned from pale to red, but to his credit Sollux wasn’t far behind (kk, are we iin a mate2priit2hiip?).

Not much had changed, really. Subtle differences, like the fact that Sollux would sometimes drop a petname when you least expected it (and it never really seemed to piss you off like you thought it should) and he had once accidentally slipped up and told you he loved you in the middle of a conversation. Otherwise, it would seem the two of you still shared a pale relationship.

With Terezi, you’d say things crashed and burned. They didn’t, not really, but that was how it always felt to you. But it was different with Sollux; one day, the two of you really weren’t matesprits anymore. Neither of you knew how or why, but you had been talking and it suddenly felt like your red feelings were gone. You thought you were the only one to notice, but Sollux caught on quickly (ii dont thiink iim red for you anymore.) and you went from being matesprits to moirails again.

 

* * *

 

Gamzee and you always remained moirails.

You’d seen the awful things he’d done; you had kissed Kanaya’s dead body, for fucks sakes. But your pale feelings for him never really boiled down, though they probably should have by that point. You and him shared a dysfunctional pale relationship, worlds away from the one you and Sollux maintained. You guess not all moirails can be as perfect as Nepeta and Equius.

It seemed you were the only one of your group of twelve who could handle Gamzee’s insanity. Even Kanaya had troubles dealing with him, and whenever she tried you always ended up as the one fixing the situation. You suppose it was admirable, the way you could calm him down in the middle of a rage fit.

He told you everything, if he was sober enough to collect his thoughts. You were the first to know of his red feelings for Tavros, ones he was always sure were never reciprocated because Tavros had that weird black/red thing with Vriska. You were also the one who told him to go for it, because Tavros deserved someone better than spiderbitch. And you were the first he told of his matespritship with Tavros.

 

* * *

 

The red quadrant was your worst, but it was the one Nepeta was most intrigued by.

After all was said and done, she’d taken you to see her shipping wall. You never knew how good she was at calling relationships (there were a few you could point out: you and Gamzee with a hastily drawn diamond, you and Sollux with half a diamond and half a heart, you and Terezi with all three quadrants you’d carried mixed somehow) and you’d listened as she had prattled on and on about her ships. “I have an OTP, too,” she had exclaimed proudly, and you’d raised both eyebrows and asked, “what the fuck is that?”

She had giggled at you. “It’s a ‘one true pairing’. You know, two people I really want together.”

You weren’t interested in any of this, but for some reason you felt obligated to stay here and listen to her talk about things that were meaningless to you. You were trying to avoid the fact that this felt like a flushed crush to you, because you were worried she may not feel the same (and you also didn’t need her moirail killing you). “So what is it, then? Your ‘one true pairing.’”

“It’s two of the humans.”

Your shipping chart flashed in your head, but you banished the thought. Nepeta had laughed when she’d seen it, looked you dead in the eye, and went, “That’s not how it’s going to work out.” At the time, you’d been slightly insulted, but now that you’ve seen how good she is at calling relationships you guess she was probably right.

She laughs again, and you abandon whatever you’d been thinking about prior. Her laugh is light and airy, not to mention music to your ears. “John and Dave.”

“No.” You say seriously.

“Yes,” She responds in an equally as serious tone. “I know you said ‘no’ because it goes against your shipping chart, Karkitty.”

“My shipping chart was the shit.” You reply.

She rolls her eyes. “No it wasn’t. You know it wasn’t,” She says. You do have to agree with her; between the crudely drawn picture and the fact that you hadn’t taken human sexuality into account, it was actually quite atrocious and you do regret making it. “I can see in your eyes that you know it wasn’t. I have another OTP, too.”

“Yeah?”

She smiles widely. “Yeah.”

“What is it?”

You’ve dropped all anger from your voice for once. You don’t have to try and figure out why; you know exactly why. Because you obviously have flushed feelings for Nepeta, but at this moment in time you’ll choose to ignore it. “You and me.”

Your eyebrows shoot so high they probably disappear into your hairline. “Come again?”

“You heard me, I’m not going to say it again.” She says in a singsong voice.

You lean forward and grab her by the shirt, melding your lips together. And you don’t know why you do it, but you do. She squeaks in mild surprise, but eventually her eyes slip shut and she responds to the kiss. You think of your other red relationships, ones that never stayed red, ones that moved from quadrant to quadrant.

She pulls back first, a smile gracing her lips.

“Will you be my matesprit?” You blurt.

“Called it,” She says. You shove her playfully. “Of course I will, Karkitty.”

You pull her into a hug.

You’re going to make this one work.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh god, how do you write things that aren't JohnDave?
> 
> This was probably worse than everything else I've ever written, oh my god.


End file.
